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Thursday, May 31, 2012

This hop is hosted by I Am a Reader, Not a Writer and Rachelle Writes.The goal of this hop is to giveaway a "favorite read", and I decided to pull together a selection of some of my favorite books from the last few years.

May
Lynn was once a pretty girl who dreamed of becoming a Hollywood star.
Now she's dead, her body dredged up from the Sabine River.

Sue
Ellen, May Lynn's strong-willed teenage friend, sets out to dig up May
Lynn's body, burn it to ash, and take those ashes to Hollywood to spread
around. If May Lynn can't become a star, then at least her ashes will
end up in the land of her dreams.

Along with her friends Terry
and Jinx and her alcoholic mother, Sue Ellen steals a raft and heads
downriver to carry May Lynn's remains to Hollywood.

Only problem
is, Sue Ellen has some stolen money that her enemies will do anything to
get back. And what looks like a prime opportunity to escape from a
worthless life will instead lead to disastrous consequences. In the end,
Sue Ellen will learn a harsh lesson on just how hard growing up can
really be.

“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.”

First,
the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility
unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment.
Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise
on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains
for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by
fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization
swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two
people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man
haunted by what he’s done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy
Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that
has triggered apocalypse. He is determined to protect her from the
horror set loose by her captors. But for Amy, escaping the bloody
fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles
and decades—towards the time and place where she must finish what should
never have begun.

With The Passage,
award-winning author Justin Cronin has written both a relentlessly
suspenseful adventure and an epic chronicle of human endurance in the
face of unprecedented catastrophe and unimaginable danger. Its inventive
storytelling, masterful prose, and depth of human insight mark it as a
crucial and transcendent work of modern fiction.

It's 1911 and the
secluded southwestern Alabama town of Old Texas has been besieged by a
scabrous and malevolent character called E. O. Smonk. Syphilitic,
consumptive, gouty and goitered, Smonk is also an expert with explosives
and knives. He abhors horses, goats and the Irish. Every Saturday night
for a year he's been riding his mule into Old Texas, destroying
property, killing livestock, seducing women, cheating and beating men
all from behind the twin barrels of his Winchester 45-70 caliber over
and under rifle. At last the desperate citizens of the town, themselves
harboring a terrible secret, put Smonk on trial, with disastrous and
shocking results.

Thus begins the highly anticipated new novel from Tom Franklin, acclaimed author of Hell at the Breech and Poachers, Smonk is also the story of Evavangeline, a fifteen-year-old
prostitute quick to pull a trigger or cork. A case of mistaken identity
plunges her into the wild sugarcane country between the Alabama and
Tombigbee rivers, land suffering from the worst drought in a hundred
years and plagued by rabies. Pursued by a posse of unlikely vigilantes,
Evavangeline boats upriver and then wends through the dust and ruined
crops, forced along the way to confront her own clouded past. She
eventually stumbles upon Old Texas, where she is fated to E. O. Smonk
and the townspeople in a way she could never imagine.

In turns
hilarious, violent, bawdy and terrifying, Smonk creates its own
category: It's a southern, not a western, peopled with corrupt judges
and assassins, a cuckolded blacksmith, Christian deputies, widows, War
veterans, whores, witches, madmen and zombies. By the time the smoke has
cleared, the mystery of Smonk will be revealed, the survivors changed
forever.

Zombies have
infested a fallen America. A young girl named Temple is on the run.
Haunted by her past and pursued by a killer, Temple is surrounded by
death and danger, hoping to be set free.

For twenty-five
years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a
plague of the dead. Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to
herself and keeping her demons inside her heart. She can't remember a
time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her
in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her
on a personal journey toward redemption. Moving back and forth between
the insulated remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple
must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she
seeks.

Evocative and
compelling, rich in imagination and atmosphere, Under This Unbroken
Sky is a beautifully wrought debut from a gifted new novelist.

Spring 1938. After nearly two years in prison for the crime of stealing
his own grain, Ukrainian immigrant Teodor Mykolayenko is a free man.
While he was gone, his wife, Maria; their five children; and his sister,
Anna, struggled to survive on the harsh northern Canadian prairie, but
now Teodor--a man who has overcome drought, starvation, and Stalin's
purges--is determined to make a better life for them. As he tirelessly
clears the untamed land, Teodor begins to heal himself and his children.
But the family's hopes and newfound happiness are short-lived. Anna's
rogue husband, the arrogant and scheming Stefan, unexpectedly returns,
stirring up rancor and discord that will end in violence and tragedy.

Under This Unbroken
Sky is a mesmerizing tale of love and greed,
pride and desperation, that will resonate long after the last page is
turned. Shandi Mitchell has woven an unbearably suspenseful story,
written in a language of luminous beauty and clarity. Rich with fiery
conflict and culminating in a gut-wrenching climax, this is an
unforgettably powerful novel from a passionate new voice in contemporary
literature.

Good luck to everyone!I hope the winner enjoys their choice of book as much as I did! And now, hop on through to the other blogs participating in the giveaway. Use the linky below to visit the next one on the list...

The silver Rolls-Royce glided off Key Biscayne as smoothly as a dolphin cutting the green water of the bay. Solomon MacIvey sat on the back seat, staring intensely at each house they passed, at the spotlessly manicured lawns, as if seeing these things for the first and last time. As they neared the causeway he muttered, "For what this one island is worth today my pappa could have bought the whole damned state back in 1883 when I was born. Folks has gone as crazy as betsybugs."

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

SynopsisCatherine has been
enjoying the single life for long enough to know a good catch when she
sees one. Gorgeous, charismatic, spontaneous - Lee seems almost too
perfect to be true. And her friends clearly agree, as each in turn falls
under his spell. But there is a darker side to Lee. His erratic,
controlling and sometimes frightening behaviour means that Catherine is
increasingly isolated. Driven into the darkest corner of her world, and
trusting no one, she plans a meticulous escape. Four years later,
struggling to overcome her demons, Catherine dares to believe she might
be safe from harm. Until one phone call changes everything. This is an
edgy and powerful first novel, utterly convincing in its portrayal of
obsession, and a tour de force of suspense.

Part of this story takes place in present day London, and part takes place some years before in Lancaster.

Lancaster, England

Catherine Bailey, like all of us, has a past. However her past has drastically scarred her, leaving her crippled with obsessions and compulsions and avoidance issues. The doctors call it by simple little acronyms like "OCD" and "PTSD". I think Catherine would simply call it "life shattering". Several years ago, she had a violent and obsessive boyfriend, leaving her paranoid and always looking over her shoulder, never trusting her surroundings.

Stuart is the upstairs neighbor. Being a therapist, he seems to see beyond all of the compulsions to the woman that lies beneath, and he is drawn to the woman she was and he knows she can be again.

I found this gritty and emotional story quite fascinating. When looking at Catherine "today", you see a broken woman, weak, out-of-control, totally irrational in her behavior. Yet the way that the book is written, shifting quickly from the past to the present and back again, you get to slowly walk through her past relationship, watching it build little-by-little. As you do, you find that the present-day actions and behaviors that previously seemed irrational begin to make total sense. She isn't crazy at all. Her obsessive behaviors seem almost "right" in light of the past.

A note of warning: This book can be quite graphic, violent and vulgar. But it is real, believable, and not exploitative.

My final word: Guttural, this story reaches deep within, leaving you a little uneasy as you think perhaps "There but by the grace of God go I." How a person can enter your life so innocuously and damage it so irreparably. How you could be taken from a strong and powerful woman, and left shattered and fearful. And mixed in amidst the twisted fears and terror is a touching romantic story. Frightening but intriguing and, in the end, utterly fascinating.

I received an ARC of this book to
review through TLC Book Tours, in exchange for my honest opinion. I was
not financially compensated in any way, and the opinions expressed are
my own and based on my observations while reading this novel.

Monday, May 21, 2012

“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.”

First,
the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility
unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment.
Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise
on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains
for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by
fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization
swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two
people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man
haunted by what he’s done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy
Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that
has triggered apocalypse. He is determined to protect her from the
horror set loose by her captors. But for Amy, escaping the bloody
fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles
and decades—towards the time and place where she must finish what should
never have begun.

With The Passage,
award-winning author Justin Cronin has written both a relentlessly
suspenseful adventure and an epic chronicle of human endurance in the
face of unprecedented catastrophe and unimaginable danger. Its inventive
storytelling, masterful prose, and depth of human insight mark it as a
crucial and transcendent work of modern fiction.

Justin Cronin is an American
novelist. Awards he's won for his fiction include the PEN/Hemingway
Award, the Stephen Crane Prize, and the Whiting Writer's Award.

Born
and raised in New England, Cronin is a graduate of Harvard University
and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He currently lives with his wife and
children in Houston, Texas where he is Professor of English at Rice
University.My Thoughts

Before she became the Girl from Nowhere-- the One Who Walked In, the First and Last and Only, who lived a thousand years-- she was just a little girl in Iowa, named Amy. Amy Harper Bellafonte.

This story takes place in various areas along the west, including places like Twenty-Nine Palms, Las Vegas, and Roswell, New Mexico.

UFO Museum, Roswell, NM

One of those classic cases of scientists doing something they can do without really stopping to question whether they really should.

The government has been playing around with things better left alone. Experiments involving people and South American bats. And, as always happens in post-apocalyptic books of this nature, they have a little "oops!" that results in the downfall of humanity. Vampire-likecreatures trick their captors and escape, and they are hungry!

Amy is just a little girl with an unstable life. Raised by a mother who makes bad choices in men and life in general, Amy is quiet and...strange. There is something disconcerting about her, like she knows what you're thinking, but passes no judgement on the world or those stumbling their way through it.

Brad Wolgast is a good man, but a broken man, who has done some things of which he is ashamed. Initially sent to kidnap Amy and bring her to the research lab, as she is viewed as the final key to their government research, he decides instead to be the man his dead baby girl could be proud of and to save Amy, who eventually becomes something of a surrogate daughter. Risking his life to protect her, he becomes the father she never had and earns a daughter's love.

Ninety-two years in the future, Peter is at a crossroads in his life. Living in a settlement of survivors who live under the constant threat of attack by the vampires known as "virals", and always second place to his esteemed older brother, he's feeling restless and uncertain. He eventually becomes the leader of a group of young colony members who set out on a mission to save a girl, and possibly the world.

I absolutely loved this story! I had a hard time getting into the first 100 pages, because I was concentrating on other books and only reading a few pages at a time. I finally decided to focus on this book, and then spent an inordinate amount of time kicking myself for having waited so long to read this book!

This book had everything: thrills, chills, horror, love, compassion, terror, suspense, brutality, sensitivity. It hosts a full cast of characters, many of which I fell in love with. I think my favorite character may have been Peter's love interest Alicia-- a strong woman raised by an ex-Colonel who taught her all about survival and fearlessness and selflessness.

This has the feel of a post-apocalyptic zombie story, but with vampire-like creatures instead. It is a bit of a cross between my two favorite books: The Stand by Stephen King and Swan Song by Robert McCammon.

My final word: This book is not for the faint of heart. At over 750 pages and full of brutality, do not go into it lightly, but grab onto it, wrap yourself around it, and live and breathe it. Only through total immersion can you truly appreciate the gentle moments. What a fine example of writing by Mr. Cronin, and I wait with bated breath for the second book in what is to become a trilogy. The Twelve is due for release in October 2012. Awesome!

I received my copy as an ARC that was passed on to me by a fellow blogger. I was not financially compensated in any way, and the opinions expressed are my own and based on my observations while reading this novel.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

NOTE: A reminder that you are free to email me about any giveaways
that you are having, if you want me to blog them, and
I'll be happy to try to post them even if I am not
entering them. Just include a link to the giveaway,
what you are giving away, how many copies are being given
away, and the deadline in order to assure being
included. Email me at nfmgirl AT gmail DOT com.

Here
is a list of some giveaways going on in Blogworld*.
Please note that new giveaways that were added this
week are indented in Blockquotes:

Monday, May 7, 2012

Mailbox Monday is now hosted monthly by a different blog. Here is the official blog of Mailbox Monday.Here's what I've received over the last few weeks:

Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama, and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet by Heather Poole Won from 2 Kids and Tired Books

"Cruising Attitude" is a
charming, funny insider's look at the life of a flight attendant, from
coping with crazy passengers to finding love at 35,000 feet.

The Names of Things by John Colman WoodWon e-book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers

The anthropologist’s wife, an artist, didn’t want to follow her husband
to the remote desert of northeast Africa to live with camel-herding
nomads. But wanting to be with him, she endured the trip, only to fall
desperately ill years later with a disease that leaves her husband with
more questions than answers.

When the anthropologist discovers a
deception that shatters his grief and guilt, he begins to reevaluate his
love for his wife as well as his friendship with one of the nomads he
studied. He returns to Africa to make sense of what happened, traveling
into the far reaches of the Chalbi Desert, where he must sift through
the layers of his memories and reconcile them with what he now knows.

Set
in a windswept wilderness menaced by hyenas and lions, The Names of
Things weaves together the stories of an anthropologist’s journey into
the desert, his firsthand accounts of the nomads' death rituals, and his
struggle to find the names of things for which no words exist.

The Virgin Cure by Ami McKayReceived through TLC Book Tours

Following in the footsteps of The Birth House, her powerful debut novel, The Virgin Cure secures Ami McKay's place as one of our most beguiling storytellers. (Not that it has to… that is pretty much taken care of!)

"I
am Moth, a girl from the lowest part of Chrystie Street, born to a
slum-house mystic and the man who broke her heart." So begins The Virgin Cure,
a novel set in the tenements of lower Manhattan in the year 1871. As a
young child, Moth's father smiled, tipped his hat and walked away from
his wife and daughter forever, and Moth has never stopped imagining that
one day they may be reunited – despite knowing in her heart what he
chose over them. Her hard mother is barely making a living with her
fortune-telling, sometimes for well-heeled clients, yet Moth is all too
aware of how she really pays the rent.

Life would be so much
better, Moth knows, if fortune had gone the other way - if only she'd
had the luxury of a good family and some station in life. The young Moth
spends her days wandering the streets of her own and better
neighbourhoods, imagining what days are like for the wealthy women whose
grand yet forbidding gardens she slips through when no one's looking.
Yet every night Moth must return to the disease- and grief-ridden
tenements she calls home.

The summer Moth turns twelve, her
mother puts a halt to her explorations by selling her boots to a local
vendor, convinced that Moth was planning to run away. Wanting to make
the most of her every asset, she also sells Moth to a wealthy woman as a
servant, with no intention of ever seeing her again.

These
betrayals lead Moth to the wild, murky world of the Bowery, filled with
house-thieves, pickpockets, beggars, sideshow freaks and prostitutes,
but also a locale frequented by New York's social elite. Their patronage
supports the shadowy undersphere, where businesses can flourish if they
truly understand the importance of wealth and social standing - and of
keeping secrets. In that world Moth meets Miss Everett, the owner of a
brothel simply known as an "infant school." There Moth finds the orderly
solace she has always wanted, and begins to imagine herself embarking
upon a new path.

Yet salvation does not come without its price:
Miss Everett caters to gentlemen who pay dearly for companions who are
"willing and clean," and the most desirable of them all are young
virgins like Moth. That's not the worst of the situation, though. In a
time and place where mysterious illnesses ravage those who haven't been
cautious, no matter their social station, diseased men yearn for a
"virgin cure" - thinking that deflowering a "fresh maid" can heal the
incurable and tainted.

Through the friendship of Dr. Sadie, a
female physician who works to help young women like her, Moth learns to
question and observe the world around her. Moth's new friends are
falling prey to fates both expected and forced upon them, yet she knows
the law will not protect her, and that polite society ignores her. Still
she dreams of answering to no one but herself. There's a high price for
such independence, though, and no one knows that better than a girl
from Chrystie Street.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Taken prisoner by a
ruthless group of anarchists deep in the Cambodian jungle,
anthropologist Jocelyn Hewitt is isolated in a dark prison cell. Without
chance of rescue. Or hope. Until the man in the next cell reaches out
to let her know she’s not as alone as she thinks.

CIA agent
Oliver Shaw has been held prisoner for over two years. Forced to witness
the brutal torture and slow murder of his entire team, his spirit is
not just broken, it’s crushed. He no longer believes in hope. Until he
hears Jocelyn through the wall, and suddenly feels like a glimpse of
light is trying to reach in…

Jocelyn’s heart aches for the
tortured man whose presence and voice give her the courage to risk their
escape. But first she’ll have to remind Oliver who he once was, what he
once loved, and bring him back to life. Only then will they have a
chance for freedom—and the kind of love neither ever thought possible.

Cynthia is a former Romance
Writers of America Golden Heart® Finalist in Romantic Suspense. She
started out writing contemporary romance, but when all her plots began
to turn dastardly, she decided to stop fighting the urge to throw
explosions, dead bodies, and evil villains into her books.

With
her B.S. in the chemical sciences and her love of the periodic table
(yes, she’s a geek and proud of it!) she finally found the perfect
potent mix of love and danger to put into her stories.

My Thoughts

You're still alive.

Town/Location:

Most of this story takes place in Cambodia.

Jocelyn is in Cambodia, trying to find out the real story behind what happened to her father, and to hopefully bring her father's remains back with her. While in Cambodia, she and her team are unexpectedly attacked, and Jocelyn is taken hostage. She finds herself in a stark prison cell, frightened and confused, but realizes that she isn't alone, as someone resides in the cell next to her.

Oliver has been held captive for two years, regularly beaten and tortured, and he is half the man he once was. But the voice of the woman in the cell next to him stirs something in him, and the man he used to be lies just beneath the surface, waiting for the opportunity to rise again.

This is one of those strange books that is hard to classify. It was an "easy" read-- after all, it is a modern-day romance novel. However it is intermingled with brutality and violence in a way that can be a little unsettling.

Additionally while I know that there is a certain degree of "suspension of disbelief" needed for most fictional stories, I had to really extend myself with the romantic plot line in this book. I think I am too rational and realistic to be able to lose myself in romance anymore. My mind is always thinking, "Oh, come on! In real life, this could never work out! Keep your heads on straight! You can't build a relationship on such a traumatic experience! Don't make any foolish commitments without years of therapy!"

My final word: If you can handle the brutality, and the uncomfortable mixing of violence and romance, go ahead and give this one a go. It's a fast read, and an interesting take on everyday romance.

My rating: 7 out of 10

Disclosure:

I received a copy of this ebook to review through Netgalley, in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not financially compensated in any way, and the opinions expressed are my own and based on my observations while reading this novel. The ebook I received was an ARC, and could differ slightly from the actual release book.